Saturday, 12 February 2011

Next week a few of the exchange students here at the design school are taking part in a snow sculpting competition called SnoWork. We have been invited to spend 3 days at the Soko's hotel in Tahko creating pieces that will be on display outside the hotel entrance.
In preparation for this we've spent a couple evenings in the school courtyard learning the basics of snow sculpting and getting to grips with what can actually be achieved through this medium.

We created a giant snow block using wooden planks as a mould, and packing snow into it until solid. Easier said than done, 2 people had to stand inside the mould (which stood 3m tall), and be bombarded with the snow we were throwing in over the sides. To speed the process up we also pushed snow from the smoking shelter into the mould, which was then stomped down by the 2 inside.

Leaving the mould overnight, we opened it the next day when the block was solid, and began our sculpting. We worked in pairs to decorate the sides of the block using the theme of Finland, whilst other students hollowed out the middle and created a small entrance. The purpose of this being for 1 person to enter at a time, cutting out background noise and focusing on 'silence' (which is a notion very important to the Finns).

Me and Leigh carved the "reindeer' on our side, not too great... but it came out better than expected! I'm really excited for the competition itself but it's going to be hard work, we will be working in teams of 3 and on a block almost double the width of our practice one! And we're expected to sculpt an actual 3D form rather than just carve into the sides! But it will be an experience none the less!